This invention relates generally to cleats applied to the soles of foot wear; and more particularly to improvements in cleats applied to shoe or boot soles to maximize traction.
There is continual need, as in workplaces, for foot wear providing a high degree of traction, preventing slippage. This need is particularly important where floor, ground or work surfaces contacted by the foot wear are slippery, for safety purposes. The prevention of slips, trips, and loss of balance by those who work at heights is important to eliminate falls that can lead to serious injury, or death. Reliable foot wear traction increases confidence of workers, enhancing working efficiency.
It is a major object of the invention to provide improvements in cleats as applied to foot wear, and in cleat configurations on soles of boots or boots, to meet the above needs. Basically, cleats are configured to provide traction in all directions, such as parallel to the foot wear sole, and the invention includes:
a) cleats provided to have generally elliptical profiles, with short and long axes,
b) the cleats located to extend on the sole in criss-cross diagonal configurations. Certain cleats may be located in rows, and oriented to have their long axes extending generally in the direction of the rows.
Another object is to distribute and space the cleats over the entire sole, to enhance safety where the surface engaged by the cleats is narrow, such as a narrow beam. For this purpose, the cleats are typically distributed over the arch region of the sole, in criss-cross relation, as well as over the sole, forward and rearward of the arch region.
An additional object is to provide the cleats in clusters, the cleats of each cluster having their long axes extending in parallel relation, and the long axes of cleats in adjacent clusters extending in different directions.
A further object is to locate certain cleats to be interrupted by edge extent of the sole; and typically large cleats are interrupted at the boot heel edge, and a still larger cleat profile is interrupted at the boot toe edge.
An additional object is to provide a protective peripheral band at the shoe sole edge to intersect certain cleats, and to shield cleat edges from catching on other surfaces.
These and other objects and advantages of the invention, as well as the details of an illustrative embodiment, will be more fully understood from the following specification and drawings, in which: